Animal Behavior

1
Animal Behavior

• Chapter 51

2
Behavior

• How an animal responds to stimuli in its
  environment
• Food odor
• Singing

3
Ethology

• Study of patterns of animal behaviors in nature

4
Study of Behavior

• Proximate causation
• How the behavior works??
• Ultimate causation
• What is the adaptive value to this behavior??

5
Behavioral ecology

• Study of the ecological evolutionary basis for
  animal behavior

6
Behavioral ecology

• Study of how natural selection shapes behavior
• Survival value
• How animals behavior allows it to survive
  reproduce
• Adaptive significance
• How behavior may increase survival reproduction

7
Innate Behavior

• Developmentally fixed behaviors
• Preset behaviors
• Individuals in a species respond similarly
• Geese retrieving eggs

8
Innate behaviors

• Fixed action pattern
• Sequence of unlearned behavioral acts that are
  unchanged
• Carried to completion
• Sign stimulus (key stimulus)
• Triggers the behavior

9
Fixed action patternStickleback fish
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Fixed action pattern

• Fixed-Action Pattern
• Begging behavior of new chicks
• Raised heads, open mouths, loud cheeps
• Sign stimulus
• Parent landing at the nest.

11
Behavior

• Taxis
• Movement towards or away from stimuli
• Positive taxis
• Towards a stimulus
• Negative taxis
• Away from a stimulus
• Kineses
• /- nonspecific movement due to stimuli

12
Migratory behavior

• Migration
• Long distant change in location

13
Migratory behavior

• Orientation
• Following a bearing
• Navigation
• The ability to adjust that bearing

14
Communication

• Signal
• Behavior causes a change in another animals
  behavior
• Communication
• Reception response of a signal
• Auditory, visual, olfactory(chemical), tactile
  signal

15
Courtship

• Leads to potential mates
• Species-specific

16
Courtship
17
Bird of paradise
18
Honeybees

• Waggle dance

19
Pheromones

• Chemical signals
• Animal communication
• Mating behaviors.
• Territorial behaviors

20
Pheromones
21
Learning

• Modification of behavior based on experiences
• Non-associative learning
• Simple
• No association between two stimuli
• Between a stimulus response

22
Habituation

• Loss of responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli.

23
Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)
24
Imprinting

• Sensitive period (critical period)
• Soon after hatching
• Important for normal parent/child behaviors
• Stimulation necessary for normal behavior
• Rat pups
• Premies
• Sexual behavior-mating

25
Spatial learning

• Memory based on environmental clues
• Digger wasps

26
Learning

• Associative learning
• Association between two stimulus or stimulus and
  a response
• Behavior is modified (conditioned) through
  association

27
Associative learning

• Classical conditioning
• Pairing of two different stimuli
• Operant conditioning
• Associate behavioral response with a reward or
  punishment
• (trial and error)

28
Classical conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov
• Dogs
• Food, salivate
• Ring bell at same time
• Dog learned to salivate with bell ringing

29
Operant conditioning

• B.F. Skinner
• Skinner box
• Rats would bump lever
• Food came out
• Learned to hit lever to get food

30
Operant Conditioning
31
Cognitive behavior

• Ability of the animals nervous system to
  perceive, store , process
• Use information gathered by sensory receptors

32
Cognitive behavior

• Chimpanzee
• Banana
• Bugs

33
Raven (cognitive behavior)

• Meat on string

?
34
Forging Behavior

• Obtaining food at the least expense
• Energy efficient
• Food vs safety
• Food vs mating
• Food vs protection

35
Territoriality

• Defends an area
• Usually excludes members of own species.
• Exclusive rights
• Food, mating

36
Gannet
37
Cheetah
38
Reproductive strategies

• Set of behaviors evolved to give maximum
  reproduction
• Food source
• Nesting sites
• Members of opposite sex

39
Sea elephant
40
Altruism

• Benefits others at the cost of individual